The Missing One by Lucy Atkins

After her mother's death Kali McKenzie is desperate to know more about her mother's life before she came to England and lived a seemingly dull and quiet life in the countryside. Kali feels that her Dad is either unwilling or unable to tell her more so having discovered some postcards in her mother's studio all sent on the same day each year and all with the same message "thinking of you" Kali sets off with her toddler son Finn to Canada to find the mysterious Susanah Gillespie who has sent the postcards. Arriving to an isolated island with no internet or phone service Kali is unable to contact her family and as the past is slowly revealed she realises that she and Finn are in grave danger. This is the kind of "women's fiction" I love, though I hate labelling and pigeon holing authors I realise as a bookseller and as a blogger that it helps readers to find the kind of books that they like. Lucy Atkins is part of a growing and exciting trend of female authors who have inherited the mantle of Daphne du Maurier and are dealing in domestic drama where character, storytelling and atmosphere are heightened. This is a thrilling and intriguing tale from debut novelist Lucy Atkins which will enthrall and delight fans of Emily Barr, Lucy Clarke, Erin Kelly and Julia Crouch.

Out now in paperback and e-book from Quercus